After purchase on your site, Awesound will automatically email the listener with their personalised access. If you collect their phone number at checkout, we'll also send them a personalised SMS.

Listeners enjoy your audiobook in one of two ways:

• Listen on mobile or desktop in any web brower (Safari, Chrome, Firfox, etc.). Streaming online like this, when logged in to Awesound, is similar to how you can watch YouTube or Netflix. You can even start listening on your laptop and resume on your phone where you last left off.
• Listen in a mobile app: This allows secure, offline listening. Awesound works directly with nearly all major podcast apps, including Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Castro, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Airr, Podcast Addict, Beyond Pod, and many more (but not Spotify) to provide secure, personalised access. This lets your listeners use their preferred app, likely maintained by tens of Google/Apple engineers, instead of having to download a new app.

If you charge listeners on your own website, then of course you receive 100% of the listener payment right away with each sale. You're free to use whatever payment processors you like (e.g., PayPal, Stripe, etc.).

We charge a 20% fee for each book sold. Awesound sends you an invoice once a month. You charge customers up-front and pay Awesound later.

Hundreds of publishers are using Awesound to sell their audiobook on their own terms, without falling prey to Audible's lecherous terms.

Viewing examples for: sales through own websiteChange

These authors sell their audiobook on their own website, charging customers themselves. In this case, Awesound acts a bit like FedEx, fulfilling the order once the customer has made payment on the author's site:

• WooCommerce (WordPress) – Arora Medical Education 🇬🇧
• WooCommerce (WordPress) – David Tensen 🇦🇺
• WooCommerce (WordPress) – Charlotte Mason 🇺🇸
• Shopify – BLF 🇫🇷
• ClickFunnels (audiobook in upsell) – Bulletproof Mindset 🇺🇸
• ClickFunnels (audiobook in upsell) – Gavin Preston 🇬🇧
• Kajabi (audiobook as part of course) – Ben Fauske 🇺🇸
• Kartra – ProAudioVoices 🇺🇸

This is our forte. Awesound let you offer secure access to your listeners. No tool can prevent 100% of piracy, but Awesound offers maximum piracy prevention without compromising on listener convenience. We've been doing this for six years now. We use an advanced mix of preventive and reactive techniques and technology to minimize piracy as much as possible.

Preventive measures are most important. We've iterated the language and personalisation which dissuades a listener from attempting piracy. Personalisation in mobile apps reminds customers that each person's access is unique, access is automatically monitored, and sharing will likely be detected. Barriers make piracy difficult (e.g., no "download" button to easily get the raw files).

Reactive measures are about detecting piracy when it occasionally does happen, and remotely shutting off access immediately. Measures include periodic, automated checks of user access logs, to look for anomalies like excessive downloads, logging in from multiple locations within a finite time period, unusual online activity, atypical listening behaviour, etc. Suspicious users are flagged, or you can disable any individual's access manually.

For the listener, it's pretty similar. Listeners get convenient mobile or desktop access, options for secure offline access, and responsive customer support in case of technical confusion.

For you, it's dramatically better

We respect you, and leave you in control of your relationship with your fans:

• You can charge listeners on your own website.This is huge! You can fully control your brand and sales material, charging listeners on your own website instead of bouncing listeners over to Audible/Amazon and potentially losing them! In particular, this option is ideal if you're also selling other products on your website. Let listeners simply "add audiobook to cart" while they check out on your site. An order can include audio and non-audio items; Awesound will only spring into action any time an order includes an audiobook.
• You get access to each listener's information (e.g., name and email) just like you would if you sold any other product directly from your own web site. This is very important, as it lets you see which members of your mailing list have already bought your audio book, and which customers are new fans.
• We never pressure you into signing an exclusive contract. You're free to sell on other platforms too, if you like.
• You set your own selling price (which you're free to change at any time).
• You can create your own promotions and discounts at any time.
• You can charge listeners with your existing e-commerce setup, if you're already selling online (optional; not required).
• You earn 2-3 times more per sale.

Yes! Awesound is designed for paid audiobooks and courses, but we also support free content.

"What if I want to heavily discount - or even give away my audiobooks for free?"

• If you have a paid audiobook, but you'd like to give away a free copy to a friend, cast member, reviewer, etc. – that's easy to do! Simply create a "100% off" code to grant them free access. Awesound provides the same level of service to "free" listeners. You can give away 25 free passes like this for no charge; a pro-rata charge is applied to your account for each "free" redemption beyond this limit.
• If your product is free for everyone, e.g., as a small perk included in a bigger package, contact us to discuss custom pricing.

Of course not! Success is the goal, not a problem.

Under the hood, Awesound partners with the best internet infrastructure providers: Stripe, Coudflare, AWS, Vercel, Twilio, SendGrid…

We're ready to scale with you from day one.

The returns policy is typically set by you, the publisher: you have the power to refund any listener within 30 days of their purchase. (No need to contact Awesound staff to issue a refund.) In fact, this is a great way to try out the Awesound platform.

Whether or not you allow refunds is up to you. You can view listener analytics before deciding to issue a particular refund or not. If the listener contacts Awesound staff to request a refund: we'll refund them if they haven't used their access, or check in with you if they have.

Yes, Awesound securely hosts your media files and takes responsibility for securing access to paying listeners only. We pay all bandwidth (streaming/download) costs. We look after collecting listener analytics to measure what content is performing well, and to detect/reduce piracy.

We provide customer tech support, and are always using listener feedback – from across hundreds of authors like you – to constantly improve the listening experience. You can relax knowing that your listeners will be happy, and the product will only improve over time. Save yourself from providing tech support to confused listeners, and partner with the best in the business: Awesound.

A home recording is perfectly fine, as long as it's high quality (minimal background noise). Free recording software includes Audacity (all computers) or Garageband (Mac only). If you're comfortable, see if you can apply a noise gate, de-esser, EQ, compressor and limiter on your recordings. If all that sounds like confusing jargon, don't sweat it; record a sample and try using auphonic.com to reduce background hum and export your files in the right format. In the simplest case, you can simply record using your phone, with no fancy microphone or software.

If you're audiobook is also on Audible, or are preparing to submit according to the ACX requirements: you can use the exact same files on Awesound.

If you'd like to hire a voice actor, studio, or sound engineer, check out:

• Audivita (Albuquerque, NM 🇺🇸)
• Kate and Michael Kramer — audiobook narrators (MD 🇺🇸)
• ProAudioVoices (Portland, OR 🇺🇸)
• Vaughn Fahie (Orange, CA 🇺🇸)
• Post Hypnotic Press (Vancouver, BC 🇨🇦)
• or your local recording studio.

You must upload mp3 files. If possible, try to match the following specifications:

• Preferred bit rate: 96-128 kbps (unless you're making highly-produced audiobook with large amounts of music or sound effects, in which case up to 192 kbps is possible).
• Mono or stereo: Mono is preferred.
• Loudness: -16 LUFS is ideal.
• Each chapter (and opening credits, intro, etc.) should be a separate mp3 file.

If you need technical guidance – you guessed it – email team@awesound.com 🎙

You will. Awesound is for entrepreneurial authors who wish to control their sales process. It's ideal for you if you're enthusiastic about driving traffic to buy their audiobook(s) – e.g., via your mailing list, podcast appearances, paid ads, etc.

Even if this sounds new to you, you're more than welcome to start your self-publishing journey today. All you need is a willingness to put yourself out there and let the world know your audio is available.

Your audiobook or premium podcast may be featured in Awesound's "publisher spotlight" or other promotional activity carried out by Awesound (e.g., a social media post), but treat this as a bonus; the primary responsibility for marketing your content is up to you.

Probably! We support a huge number of integrations, including Zapier, Facebook pixel, utm parameters, Google Analytics, third-party e-Commerce sites like WooCommerce (WordPress), Shopify, ClickFunnels and many more.

What do you have in mind? Email team@awesound.com

If you have the audio already recorded, you can be up and running (with your book ready for test purchases) in as little as 10 minutes.

If you need a member of Awesound staff to review your account before you launch, or assist in your setup process, allow 3-5 days to arrange a call or exchange a few emails (team@awesound.com) or instant messages (see corner). Let us know if you're looking to lauch on a tight deadline! If you like, we can do a screen-share video call to help you set up selling from your own website.

On an ongoing basis, we're always glad to provide feedback, tips and share best practices.